Abstract: Traditional structural geology textbooks often provide outdated treatments of joints and veins, failing to reflect the significant advances made in the past three decades. This review seeks to address part of this gap by highlighting the significance of barren joints and veins in reconstructing both the directions and magnitudes of geological paleostress. Conjugate shear joints not only indicate the orientation of the three effective principal stresses but also imply differential stresses at least four times greater than the tensile strength of the host rock. Exfoliation joints form under stress states of σ₁≈σ₂>0>σ₃, whereas polygonal columnar joints in sedimentary rocks reflect σ₁^*>>σ₂^*=σ₃^*, allowing the tensile strength of rocks to be estimated. Tensile joints in strong brittle beds interlayered with ductile soft layers are primarily driven by tensile stresses transferred from interfacial shear stresses between the hard and soft layers, with joint saturation mainly controlled by tectonic strain. Under natural strain-rate conditions, the Weibull modulus and tensile strength of the strong layers, as well as the shear-flow strength of the ductile layers, can be inferred from the nonlinear relationship between joint spacing and bed thickness. Ladder-like orthogonal joints, which form under a stress state of σ₁^*>>σ₂*>σ₃*, divide strata into blocky units and, after weathering and erosion, give rise to characteristic castle- and tower-like landforms. Veins, as mineral-filled joints, provide spacing and thickness data that allow estimates of layer strain. Moreover, the nonlinear relationship between vein spacing and bed thickness permits quantification of the extent to which mineral precipitation restores the tensile strength of rock beds. The absence of ladder-like orthogonal veins is attributed to this strength recovery. Collectively, these observations demonstrate the critical role of joints and veins in constraining both the magnitudes and orientations of geological paleostress fields.